Shuttle-check.



R. D. HUNT 6: J. RILEY. SHUTTLE CHECK. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 4, 1908.

921 ,406, I Patented May 11, 1909.

RANDALL D. HUNT AND JOHN RILEY, OF LAPORTE, INDIANA.

SHUTTLE-C13 CK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11, 1909.

Application filed. September 4, 1908. Serial No. 451,762.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, RANDALL D. HUNT and JOHN RILEY, of Laporte, in the county of Laporte and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shuttle-Checks; and we hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in loom shuttle checks, operating to check the flight of the shuttle and properly position it in the shuttle box.

In loom construction it is customary to provide in the lay-end a recess alining with the race, in which the head of the picker may play, and to provide in said recess some sort of check or buffer for receiving the impact and checking the flight of the shuttle after the latter comes in contact with the picker. For this purpose vertical straps maintained taut by spring tension have heretofore been quite generally employed, but such devices are disadvantageous in that the recurring impacts in time destroy the strap or spring, and breakage of either of these parts leaves so open the recess in the lay end that the shuttle may drive the picker far beyond its normal position, so that the shut tle is not restored to proper position in the shuttle box, and the succeeding effort of the loom mechanism to pick the next-acting shuttle often results in breaking the picker sticks, or throwing the'shuttle out of its path of travel, with more or less disastrous results, readily appreciated by those skilled in the art.

One of the salient objects of our invention is to provide a pneumatic picker check wherein the impact of the shuttle, transmitted through a picker, is taken up primarily by the resiliency of an'air cushion; and a further object of our'invention is to provide such pneumatic check, which when under most adverse conditions stops the traverse of'the shuttle before it passes far beyond its proper stopping point, and prevents material damage to the loom.

Another object of our invention is to provide a pneumatic check, in which a relief valve to the air chamber is controlled by the action of the picker. And still another object of our invention is to provide a check which is simple in construction, efficient in operation and readily applicable to existing forms of looms.

In the drawing wherein we have illus trated an operative embodiment of our invention; Figure 1 is a side elevation with parts broken away; showing a portion of a shuttle box, and a lay end equipped with a picker check embodying our invention; Fig. 2 is a central vertical section through the check; Fig. 3 is an end view of with parts broken away.

In the drawing, 5 indicates in general a shuttle box, for the reception of shuttles, in vertically sliding connection with the lay end 7 of usual construction, affording a recess 8, alining with the race, closed at its end by a wall 9 and open at its top.

10 indicates the customary picker riding in a slot 11, and connected by the usual strap 12 with a picker stick 12. These parts are herein illustrated as of construction well known in the art.

The specific check construction shown comprises a base plate 13 held vertically in firm contact with the wall 9 by a single bolt 14, said plate being provided with integral upper and lower guide posts 15 and 16, projecting horizontally therefrom in separated relation, the upper guide 15 having preferably a flat lower guiding surface and the lower post 16 having therein a guiding channel 1.7. Between the upper and lower guides 15 and 16 is slidingly mounted a cylinder 18 having a flattened upper surface and a rib 19 on its lower surface, for close engagement with the correspondingly flat and grooved surfaces of the upper and lower guides, and centrally bored as at 20 from its inner end to its head 21, to receive a stationary piston 22, preferably made integral with the plate 13. The piston 22 is provided with a suitable packing 23, of metal, leather, fiber or the like, to make airtight contact with the bore of the cylinder, either at all times, as shown, or only when the cylinder is forced toward the base plate if preferred.

In the construction shown the packing is retained upon the reduced end 24, of the piston, by a washer 25 secured by a suitable screw 26. The cylinder is provided with a the check minute relief opening 27' through its head, overlain by a heavy flexible buffer, 28, preferably of leather, or the like, which in the construction shown acts both as cushioning means and as a valve for the orifice 27, such leather piece 28 being secured at its top only to the cylinder as by a screw 29. A metal strap 30, secured to the lower post 16 and having its end upturned to overlie the lower face of the cylinder member 18, acts as a positive stop to limit the movement of the cylinder 18 away from the base plate, and to insure normal maintenance of the cylinder at such extreme limit of movement we provide a spring, which is preferably, as herein shown at 31, a conical, resilient spiral interposed between the cylinder head 21 and the piston 22. Any form of spring in any suitable position may be employed. however. hen the check is in place, as illustrated in F 1, it stands interposed between the picker 10 and the end wall 9 of the lay end, so that its cylinder may move wit-h the picker.

In operation, when a 'apidly traveling shuttle, passing the swell of its box, strikes the picker, it drives the picker against the leather piece 28, forcing it tightly over the relief aperture 27, and driving the cylinder back in its guide ways, over its stationary piston, egress of the air from the bore 20 being prevented by the piston packing and the closing of the aperture 27, so that the air within the bore is compressed, and, resisting with constantly increasing force the movement of the picker and cylinder, brings the shuttle to rest, and then by its expansive tendencies, aided. by the action of the spring 31, throws the shuttle back in its box cell until stopped in proper position by its swell. During the return of the cylinder to its limit of movement, the leather piece 28 is not held with such force against the aperture 27 as during its shuttle-checking movement, and consequently air may enter through the orifice 27, to compensate for any slight leakage that may occur in the checking action. It may be obvious that the spring 31, while an effective auxiliary and aid to the compressed air in the returning of the cylinder to its limit of movement is not relied upon to any great extent to take up the shock of the shuttle impact, and consequently may be comparatively weak and is, therefore, of long life. However breakage of the spring does not disable the check to perform its functions in a measure quite a number of times although, of course, with diminishing effectiveness, and conse qnently even if the spring breaks when the loom is in full operation the picker and the shuttle are not permitted to travel far be yond their allotted positions so that the shuttle may not become caught, and at worse the diminished resiliency of the check in practice only results in the displacement of the bobbin from position in the shuttle, or displacement of the thread from the bobbin, with consequent breaking or slacking of the weft an'd stoppage of the loom. Itwill also be observed that the cheek, held preferably by a single bolt, may quickly be removed and a fresh spring inserted with little trouble or loss of time.

While we have herein described in some detail a specific embodiment of our invention which. we have found. in practice to be effective and satisfactory, we do not desire to be understood as limiting our invention to the particular construction shown and described further than as specified in the claims, as it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that numerous changes in the particular construction might be made Without departure from the spirit and scope of our invention.

Having described our invention what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1.. The combination with a loom providing a lay end, having therein a recess, in which the picker may move, under the impact of the shuttle, of a pneumatic picker check, interposed bet-ween the picker and the end wall of the lay end, comprising a cylinder and piston surrounding an air chamber, and providing a vent orifice in the cylinder head for said air chamber, and an exterior valve for covering said vent opening arranged to be struck and closed by the impact of the picker. Y 7

2. The combination with a loom provid ing a lay end, having therein a recess, in which the picker may move, under the impact of the shuttle, of a pneumatic picker check, interposed between the picker and the end wall of the lay end, comprising a stationary piston, a cylinder slidably mounted on said piston, a stop for limiting the outward movement of said cylinder on the piston, a spring tending to maintain said cylinder in its outward limit of movement, said cylinder providing a relief aperture in its end, and a valve for sald relief aperture arranged to be struck and closed by impact of the picker. I

3. The combination with a loom provid ing a lay end, having therein a recess, in which the picker may be moved, under the impact of the shuttle, of a pneumatic picker check, interposed between the picker and the end wall of the lay end, comprising a base plate having upper and lower guides, a stationary piston between said guides, a cylinder guided above and below by said guides and surrounding the piston, said cylinder having a relief orifice in'its head, a stop for limiting the outward movement of the cylinder on the piston, a spring within the cylinder bearing against said piston and tending to maintain the cylinder at its outward as our own We affix our signatures in preshmlt of movement, and a fleXlble flap overence of two witnesses.

lying the end of the cylinder to act both as i RANDALL D. HUNT. a buffer for the picker and as a valve for the JOHN RILEY.

5 relief orifice closable by the impact of the In presence 015- picker. GEORGE D. PAToN, In testlmony that We clann the foregoing l BESSIE FOLANT. 

